Apple Watch 5? Pffft, all evidence suggests the Series 3 is 2020’s hot item

£200 wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch Series 3 and Galaxy Watch, will likely be 2020’s hot tech item according to fresh research from CCS Insight.

CCS Insight claims that recent research, that saw it survey 4000 shoppers in the US and UK, suggests affordable wearables are the top tech purchase in most peoples’ wishlist.

This reportedly due to solid market penetration, with many buyers already owning a watch and reporting plans to upgrade in the future.

Specifically 57% of wearable owners reported high satisfaction with their device, and plans to buy another. Only 7% of wearable users surveyed report plans not to buy another smartwatch.

The results also found that 40% of respondents without a wearable had considered getting one and a third have active plans to get one in the future. CCS senior analyst Leo Gebbie suggested the increased interest stems from price drops on key products, like the Apple Watch Series 3.

“Advanced smartwatches are rapidly coming down in price, with devices such as the Apple Watch and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series becoming more affordable than ever. In our research potential customers said they would consider buying a watch at the $200 or £200 mark, so it’s no surprise that major manufacturers are targeting this exact space in the market,” he said.

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Apple radically dropped the price of its Apple Watch Series 3 after the launch of its current Apple Watch Series 5 in September last year.

Gebbie highlighted high user satisfaction as another key factor driving wearable growth.

“A few years ago, our research found many people who tried a smartwatch for a few months and abandoned it in favour of a traditional watch; now, smartwatches have become an indispensable piece of technology for their owners,” he said.

The research highlighted a growth in “kids wearables” in the West as another new market that could boost wearable use.

“Kids’ smartwatches have yet to catch on in Western markets, but we believe that they have the potential to become incredibly popular, especially in instances where parents want to stay in contact with their children but think they’re too young for a smartphone. These devices could quickly take off as a viral trend and become must-have gadgets for kids,” said Gebbie.

CCS Insight is one of many analyst firms to peg wearables as one of tech’s fastest growing categories. Separate research from the Pew Research Center reported that one in five American adults regularly use a fitness tracker or smartwatch of some kind in January.

The IDC reported detecting a giant 94% growth in the number of global wearable shipments in the third quarter of 2019 from Q3 2018 in December 2020.